The Palm Tree Blessing

by William Edward Shepard

But why not the mixed garment, of woolen and linen? "They shall be clothed with linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat" (Eze. 44:17, 18). God did not want them to chafe and sweat in performing their religious service; hence, the prohibition of the mixture in garments.

In this we find a beautiful lesson for spiritual experience. We have too much of the linsey-woolsey type of religion in our day. How God must abhor unholy mixing up!

In this threefold prohibition we see the three sides of religion. Pure religion consists of three things: doctrine, service, and experience. First, they were not to mix the seed. What does seed typify? Read the parable of the sower in the eighth chapter of Luke. "The seed is the word of God." Here we have the thought: it is the doctrine of God. One part of religion is doctrine, and we must not be mixed in this respect. When the Bible speaks of that teaching which comes from God, it is put in the singular and called "doctrine." When it comes from men or devils it is called "doctrines." God's doctrine is one; men and devils' are many. Paul admonished Timothy to take heed unto the doctrine. In Paul's time, and in the times of the early fathers, heresy abounded. In our own time, Christendom is rent with heresy. Unscriptural doctrine obtains everywhere. Universalism proclaims the mercy of God reaching "from everlasting to everlasting." So, in the ultimate outcome, all, because Christ died for all, will be housed safely, in spite of a Christ-rejecting life. Unitarianism, as the name suggests, believes in one God; hence, rejects the deity of Jesus Christ, and being Universalists also in belief, they are all going to get in by the example of the Savior. While the Universalist believes that God is too good to damn him, the Unitarian believes that he is too good to be damned. Then comes along the soul-sleeper, who mixes with his doctrine the heresy of no conscious existence after death till the resurrection, and the utter annihilation of the wicked following the judgment, all of which is in direct opposition to the plain teaching of the Word. Mormonism comes in with its deluded adherents and claims a new revelation in the Book of Mormon, and repudiates hell, flaunts its mantle of polygamous fornication over its dupes, and gives the world a mixture indeed. Christian Science, the greatest misnomer in modern parlance, foists its counterfeit religious currency over our fair land and makes the unwary deny the existence of sin, death, Devil, and the real personality of God himself. The blood atonement of our Savior is obnoxious to them, and hell is not in their creed. Surely theirs is a mixed seed, with scarcely any real truth. Then springs up the ignis fatuus fallacy of Russellism with its promised "Millennial Dawn," spreading out the "Plan of the Ages" so that its deceived votaries discount the deity of Christ until His resurrection. They claim that His body was not resurrected, but may have passed off into gases; that one is not born again till he is resurrected; that hell is a farce; that the world will have a further chance of being saved after death. Not content with these forces, the disseminator of mixed seeds raises up a regiment of Higher Critics, who, with their Jehoiakim penknives, have cut and slashed the blessed, inspired Word of God till it is beyond recognition as it comes from their hands. To follow their vandalism is to get into the meshes of mysticism and doubt, and wonder what part, if any, is to be relied upon as actual inspiration. Then we have the "New Thought," and the "New Theology," and the "Aquarian Gospel," and their name is Legion, the "isms" that are foisted upon gullible humanity in these latter days. Occasionally one pokes up his personality above the horizon and declares himself Jesus Christ, when, lo, and behold a following! Sad indeed is it that so many people and many good people, have been beguiled into the unscriptural teaching couched in the creed of the so-called "Tongues Movement." When it first claimed the attention of the Christian world their theory was first, justification, in which all sins were forgiven; then following this experience came sanctification, which involved the cleansing of the heart from all inbred sin; following this definite work, comes the baptism with the Holy Ghost, accompanying which is the speaking in tongues as an evidence of said baptism. No one must rest satisfied that he has received his Pentecost till he has spoken in tongues. Then the factions began to arise. Leaders opposed each other, and all spoke in tongues as claimed. Their creed began to change, and now one of the leading factions of the movement ridicules the thought of sanctification as a second work of grace, and declares, that while sanctification does come in, yet all the cleansing one gets is in the first work when pardon takes place; that is, all inbred sin is then eradicated from the heart. They still hold to the baptism with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. Many of the good people of the land have been caught in this theological mix-up, and have dropped out of the old-time holiness ranks. What does it all signify? It signifies a mixing of seed—a mixing of doctrine. The theocracy of the Old Testament forbade it in the literal, and the inspired Word also forbids it in the spiritual, in the present dispensation.

A person who is mixed in his doctrine is a dangerous element in the community. His work is not to settle, root and ground others in the faith, but rather to unsettle them. "A heretic after the first and second admonition, reject." Has it ever occurred to the reader that heresy is one of the works of the flesh, or carnal mind? Read it in Gal. 5:20. The Conservator of orthodoxy is the Holy Ghost in a purified heart. Outside of that, where is the hope of preserving inviolate the purity of the doctrine of God? Let me illustrate how this works. There enters an intelligent, so-called expounder of the truth, into a pulpit, and he proceeds to teach the people. There sits in the congregation one with a purified heart, in whom dwells the Holy Ghost, the Author of the inspired Word. As this ingenious mixer of seed throws out some good truth, he adroitly mixes into it his heresy, and makes it so plausible, that, if possible, it would deceive the very elect. His arguments are so clear, and he uses the Scriptures so well to prove his statements, that even to the minds of the most spiritual, it seems that he has made the points scripturally plain. The head responds and says, "It looks that way," but the Holy Ghost dwelling in that purified heart causes a shrinking. The soul closes in, and the listener says, "I do not feel right somehow. I am not comfortable." What is the matter? It is the blessed Conservator of orthodoxy, the Preserver of the purity of the Word of God operating in that heart to hinder it from accepting heresy. But here sits another who has not been so fortunate as to have the element of inbred sin purged from the heart; hence, has not the abiding fulness of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The speaker appeals to him in the same way he did to the other. The head nods assent, for he certainly makes it plain. But he has that in his heart from which heresy springs, and so the heresy from this man appeals to its kindred spirit in the listener, and the result is, it is swallowed down, the poison has done its work, and another victim is numbered. Oh, reader, is it of small import that we should be filled with the Holy Ghost, and thus have our spiritual Protector always guarding us from poisonous seed? We would not want to take the stand that this is the infallible rule with all people, but we do certainly believe that this is the secret of some remaining firm and immovable in doctrine, while others are swept from their moorings.

The next department of religion we wish to notice in connection with wrong mixtures is that of service. The ox and the ass were not to be yoked together. This signifies service. Service constitutes a large portion of our religion. Without proper service to God we could not hope to continue in the grace of God. Certainly it stands one in hand to know what kind of service he should engage in.

The world and the religion of Jesus Christ were never calculated to mix. It is the unholy mixtures all down the ages that have brought the stigma upon the Church of God. It always causes trouble. "And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?" The children of Israel fell into line with the murmurings of the mixture they had on hand. God's plan has always been for His people to be separated people. That is the reason He took them out of Egypt. He warned them before they ever got to Canaan, that they must remain separated from the inhabitants of the land. They were not to intermarry; they were not to mix. When Balaam utterly failed to curse the children of Israel for Balak's sake, because the Lord would not let him, yet on his departure he told Balak how he could succeed anyway. He told him to mix up with the children of Israel in an unholy and abominable alliance. He did so and brought the curse and plague of God upon Israel, and thousands were slain thereby. When Nehemiah was sent to rebuild Jerusalem, he found a terrible state of affairs had arisen by the intermarriage of the Jews with the women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. There were a lot of little half-breeds running around that could not talk the Jews' language. So Nehemiah had a great cleaning up time on his hands.

God has called His Church to stand out clean and spotless from the world. What a power she would have been had she always taken the separated, clean way! But how sad to see those who profess to be followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene, courting the world and mixing with them in their pleasures, pride, popularity, and polluted politics!

One of the saddest things to behold today is the reckless transgression of that plain command, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." See the unhappy homes everywhere, because Christians did not counsel with God and His Word in taking a life-partner. Oh, the anguish, and heartaches, and backslidings, because the plain Word was not followed! There was a certain Christian lady, who neglected to follow the Guide Book in this important step, and right soon after the marriage she knelt down to offer a little prayer to God, and His voice was heard clear and distinct: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." It was too late now to remedy the affair, but the same word was in the Book before she got into trouble. For thirty years this lady wandered on in darkness thereafter and never heard the voice of God, till in mercy she was brought back to saving grace.

How many there are who take upon them the name of Jesus Christ and yet are mixed up in secret societies and labor unions. Let the world have these institutions if they want, for they are simply worldly. Their methods and practices and pleasures are not conducive to spiritual life. It is a wrong mixture. "Come out from among them and be ye separate."

Let me not pass by another mixing which does not have the blessing of God upon it. It is that of partnership in business with the unsaved. How many of God's people have found themselves in serious difficulty on account of unscriptural business partnership. More than once God has had to force the alternative upon one of His children to buy out or sell out; that he could not continue in such alliance to the glory of God. We have been astonished and grieved at the careless and reckless way so many professing Christians, yea, holiness people have disregarded this command of separation, and allowed themselves to be drawn into stock companies with the unsaved. Is it not an unequal yoking together? Shall we take God's money, and put it in the control of the world? No wonder so many who have been so fortunate as to possess a little of this world's goods have suddenly found their money taking wings and flying away. Had they counseled with God in the business, they would not have been beguiled into the unequal yoking with unbelievers. Let us not think we can fly in the face of the plain Word of God and take matters in our own hands with impunity.